Stoke 1 - 0 Arsenal: Bad blood and bad football

More stamps than a Philatelist Convention at the Britannia Stadium

With the possible exception of defeats at the hands of Spurs or Manchester United, a loss against Stoke is about as painful as it gets for me.  There was plenty of bad blood and just as much bad football yesterday as an uninspired Arsenal team fell limply in battle against an "up for it" Stoke.

I don't want to bore on about refereeing decisions as our performance was poor and we didn't deserve a win so I'll quickly air my grievances and then get onto the football. Charlie "I would never intend to injure a fellow professional" Adam attempted to injure Giroud with an extremely nasty late stamp. The man has so much previous, that at any other club he would be considered a disgrace.  Giroud was actually penalised in the first half for being on the receiving end of a very nasty challenge from Whelan. Olivier took a right kicking and although his response was perhaps a bit flouncy, the Stoke fans absolutely slated him, presumably because in their warped minds, being on the receiving end of horror-challenges from Stoke players makes you deserving of abuse.

As for the penalty, Koscielny has an unfortunate knack of conceding them and he was perhaps a little reckless in jumping in with his hands up but it seems harsh that a game's result is decided by an accidental handball.

But enough of the excuses; we were well below par and didn't deserve to win the game.  At this stage of the season and given the extremely difficult run of fixtures that await us it felt like a monumental blow.  Arsène admitted as much after the game:

"It is not slightly worrying, it's a big worry for us to lose a game like that.  It is a massive setback of course" - Arsène Wenger

That's not to say that this was an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, as Chelsea and United also suffered defeats at the Britannia Stadium this season, but with such a tight four-horse title-race, the time for setbacks has to be gone. We simply must be brilliant and take almost all remaining points to stand a chance of winning the league and sadly it just looks a little unlikely now, with some bookmakers even stretching our title odds to 20/1.

The biggest surprise the team sheet threw up was the exclusion of Özil for Lukas Podolski.  Lukas would have been desperate to show he can play a big part for the remainder of the season but unfortunately it didn't happen for him yesterday (or any of our midfielders or attackers for that matter).  The one player that did make a real difference was Oxlade-Chamberlain; twice his bursts of pace down the right and low crosses created good chances but unfortunately Giroud's (admittedly tricky) effort was tame and then Sanogo's late effort was high and ugly.

Arsène also pipped for Wilshere and Arteta in the middle with the combative Flamini perhaps surprisingly (given the nature of the opposition) left on the bench. Jack was excellent last week against Sunderland but struggled to impose himself on this game and looked decidedly disappointed upon being replaced late on by Yaya Sanogo.

It's of course much easier to say who should or shouldn't have played with hindsight and I must say I wasn't unhappy with the teamsheet when I first saw it but perhaps Flamini and Arteta would have performed slightly better (although perhaps not) and Oxlade-Chamberlain's performance will probably earn him a start against Everton. I would also be surprised not to see Özil restored to the team for the hugely important FA Cup Quarter Final. He has been rested for a couple of games and I am sure will be desperate to prove his quality following some fairly strong criticism from some quarters.

So it was a bitterly disappointing result which left us very bitter and very disappointed as it came at a time when we couldn't really afford to lose and we lost to my least favourite team and to one of my three least favourite managers. The others being José "classless press masturbatory aid" Mourinho and Tony "anti-football and nobody's masturbatory aid" Pulis, seeing as you asked.  Mark Hughes has become the first manager to defeat Arsenal with four different teams.  But ho-hum, a win in the FA Cup next week would be a huge boost so lets focus on that. Plus, at least our manager didn't headbutt anyone...


Man of the Match: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - Slim pickings for this one but despite not having a long time to make an impact, the Ox did just that.